FEckeT

booked on the 14th fl aft facing balcony of the breakaway.. now i see reviews of the 14th floor balcony being smaller... should i change rooms to the 11th floor? I kind of like the idea of walking up 1 flight of stairs and im in the buffet.. :D

Only you can make the final decision of whether you want to be one flight down from the buffet or have a larger balcony.

We stayed in a B1 Breakaway Deck 12 cabin and the balcony was huge, there were 9 of us traveling together and our balcony held us all with room to spare. We were more towards the starboard side I think one over from the center or 3rd cabin from the starboard. The firework view was not so great, another cabin in our party was also in a B1 Deck 12 balcony but either the 2nd or 3rd cabin from the port side, and their firework view was better.

As far as the cabins being larger, I could not really tell, as another cabin also in our party had a corner port side balcony and maybe the cabin was a bit smaller, now that I think of it (of course the balcony was MUCH smaller).

The next 2 times we sailed on the Breakaway it was in a regular port side balcony cabin and again, I didn't notice the difference in the size of the cabin, only the balcony was teeny tiny. :(

That being said, you are the one that has to weigh the importance of being close to the buffet or having a larger balcony. I would probably go with the larger balcony, but even though Deck 9 was available when we sailed in the B1 and we knew it had the largest balconies, I wanted to be higher up on the ship.

What B1 cabins are still available for your sailing? You know you can change your cabin if you stay in the same category without worrying about changing anything else on your reservation, I think.

An aft balcony is our absolute favorite, if possible we always try to book one.

No matter which cabin you pick, you will have a wonderful trip.

Relax, have fun and enjoy your cruise.

:)

I've hosted many a M&G, make up my own name tags with the name of the ship and photo, date of the cruise, ports visited, name of the person as well as their CC name. Great way to know who couldn't make it. LOL

 

I've learned from the past and now always ask the group organizer WHEN the Platinum Behind the Scene tour is. If it conflicts with the M&G I ask them to change the day/time of one or the other. So far, my request has been granted on the last 3 M&G's I've hosted in the last year or so.

 

Harriet

Thank you Harriet, I am so GLAD you said this.

Last year we were on the Breakaway for a B2B (Bahamas then Bermuda; this was the FIRST time we were sailing as Platinum. When I discovered that the tour was scheduled for an hour before our Meet and Greet, which I organized, we had to skip the tour. There were many that didn't show, now I am realizing why. When it was scheduled again for the same time the next week, we skipped the tour again, but was really bummed.

Harriet, you are my HERO :D

Thanks again,

Tina and Fred

:)

I can honestly say, that I felt like I was on the ship with you ... almost ;)

What a great job you did keeping us coming back, thank you :)

I have a question that hopefully you can answer before you leave the ship, I called NCL and received two totally different answers, so I am hoping you can break the tie.

I think when we sailed on the Gem in 2013 we could view our on board account through the TV in our cabin, can you still do that? Also, can we book our excursions from the TV in our cabin as well? I know we could do that from the Breakaway. The gentleman I spoke to at NCL said YES, that now it could be done from ALL the ships. The lady I spoke to this morning said NO, only on the new ships, like the Epic, Breakaway, Getaway, etc.

Since you are on the ship, can you please tell us the truth? Hopefully it is not something that is only available in a suite?

We are sailing on the Gem next week for the 6 day to Canada Cruise, we will be in the Aft balcony (not suite) also on deck 10, which I know can get a bit wet and dirty from the outdoors, the mini suites above on deck 11 do not have this problem as their balconies are totally covered, unlike deck 10 that is about 1/2 uncovered :eek:

We are traveling with 2 other couples so we all wanted to see about booking excursions once we were on the ship and your confirmation that we can or cannot do it from our cabins would be so much appreciated.

Again, thank you so much for your wonderful ship tour.

Tina

:D

And you can buy the bar setup on board the ship. Same cost as buying in advance. If you pre purchase, it may be in your room when you arrive, but usually you have to tell your steward what you want for the set up. Set up includes three mixers and garnishes.

When did they start allowing the purchase of a bar set after boarding? I was not aware that we could do that. We always purchased our bar setup several weeks prior to sailing, and yes, sometimes I had to remind the steward that I was supposed to receive the soda and/or garnish.

:confused:

I just logged in to my NCL-account earlier today, to check something regarding Latitude - and there, under "Cruise History" it states as follows:

"You do not have any cruise history."

 

Above that line it does however state my Platinum status and correct number of Latitude points. Probably just a temporary glitch in the system, but I must admit that I got a little startled before I saw that at least my Latitude points and status is correct. My NCL-account have until now always been accurate regarding my cruising history, and been updated within a day or two of a completed cruise.

 

Just wondering if this is a general glitch in the system or if it is only me.....? I am not too worried, since my Latitude status and points are correct, but I don't like that my cruise history with NCL suddenly seems to have disappeared. :eek:

I logged in yesterday, and noticed the same thing on both mine and my husband's accounts. No history, points and Platinum status correct

:confused::confused:

Just wondering what week is spring break in NYC. We're going on the Gem, leaving April 15th. We have three grandchildren who are also looking forward to the rock wall. I read that the scrubbers were finished, I wonder why the wall isn't opened yet.

For the first time all 5 of my grandchildren are off the same week here in New Jersey. They live and go to school in 3 different counties. They are all in elementary or middle schools.

They are off from today, April 3rd and do not return to school until Monday April 13, 2014.

Not sure when New York children are off???

:confused:

Last year on the Breakaway out of New York, we were told to leave our belongings in our cabin (since we were in the same cabin for both parts of our cruise) and to meet other B2B passengers in one of the lounges.

We waited there until we were escorted off the ship, (may have had "in transit" name tag sticker that we were told to wear). We were allowed to go off on our own, or stay with the group and re-board the ship.

We were told that we had to WAIT until the ship was zero cleared out of all passengers, then we could re-board.

Very easy.

Enjoy your cruise.

:) :)

It won't be open.

Why not? Why is the rock climbing wall on the GEM closed? Did something happen?

I haven't been on this board for quite some time now, did I miss something?

We were on the Gem in 2013 without kids, when we went up to "check out" the rock climbing wall it was closed, but not for the entire cruise, just the time we went up to take pictures.

Curious, as we will be back on the Gem again in June.

:confused:

The reason l'm asking is because I booked the one right next to the aft one Gambee had and was hoping for similar balcony space....deck 12... I think it is 12908...Gambees was 12906. It appears to be same cabin numbers in the same place on both ships. Thanks!

Just got off the Breakaway last Sunday and we stayed in B1 aft balcony cabin 12908. WONDERFUL balcony.

When we first entered the cabin, the balcony had 2 chairs and a table by the railing along with 3 LOUNGE chairs and we still had room to walk around. Could not ask for anything better!

Bed was by the closet, which was a bit of a pain at times.

Poor designing through out the ship, along with a few good ones.

I took a few pictures of the balcony only, don't think I took any of the cabin. Let me know if you want me to "try" to figure out how to post the pictures here.

:)

At the risk of sounding completely stupid here, first I laughed at "booze police", then had to look up the commented "smuggling" & then I laughed some more! To each their own but that all sounds like ALOT of trouble to go to in hopes of getting away with something.

 

Anyhow, thanks for the answers. I'm a big water drinker (my hubby says I drink enough water to drown a fish ;-) so just wanted to check guidelines on how much I can bring & if I had to count it as luggage.

 

Have a good day all

I am also a BIG water drinker. My DH gets mad when I want to bring on 2 cases, we drink what we bring, then have room for any items we may have purchased. :)

Carrying it on, seems like a hassle to me, that's why we put it in a suitcase. Have seen cases of water outside cabin doors with a luggage tag taped to it.

Enjoy your cruise!

Wow - that was a big statement. So, if people smuggle, then doing the same thing with bottles will cause a problem?

 

Not sure what you are trying to say.

I was answering your original post about the booze police:

no limit on luggage

 

Bottled water might trigger the booze police. Maybe, maybe not. In the end, which is better, the ships water or bottled water?

 

You can also carry water/soda onboard in your carryon to avoid any hassle.

no limit on luggage

 

Bottled water might trigger the booze police. Maybe, maybe not. In the end, which is better, the ships water or bottled water?

 

You can also carry water/soda onboard in your carryon to avoid any hassle.

We ALWAYS put our case of water and two 6 packs of soda soda in our checked luggage. It is NOT a hassle nor has it EVER triggered the "booze police".

Maybe it is because we do NOT smuggle!

We usually purchase a bar set up and at least one bottle of wine for our cabin so it is there when we arrive. This does not stop DH from purchasing several buckets of beer during the week and I usually end up purchasing a few drinks of the day or another bottle or two of wine.

The soda is for the bar setup, since it only comes with 6 cans, and sometimes to settle our stomach, not so much from the rough sea, but more from over eating :eek:.

The case of sport bottled water is for drinking in our cabin or while in port. Very seldom do I carry it around on the ship.

At meals we drink the ships water (in addition to our beer and wine).

We also spend a lot of time in the casino :D

Any way to tell where is the bed is in 12306?

Did you ever find out where the bed is located in cabin 12306?

Did you end up booking this cabin? If so, can you tell me what were your thoughts, likes and dislikes about this cabin, please.

Thank you so much,

:)

At present I am in the atrium writing this post and watching Latin dance lessons and soon we will be in San Juan. Check-in went smooth via the CAS line, and my cabin aft balcony 12310 is the best. Sailing solo, with my sister and niece in aft balcony 12906. I just can't get over how huge these balconies are!!!

 

.

Do you think you could ask your steward where the bed is located in cabins 12908 and 12306 for us please?

Thank you in advance, if you can.

In either case, enjoy your cruise.

:D

Can you see the fireworks from an aft (stern) balcony near the center but towards the starboard side of the ship?

:confused:

Was looking into the Ultimate Dining Package for 2 upcoming cruises yesterday. One cruise is in March, the Other December. Yesterday they were available to purchase in My NCL for both. Today they are both gone. Has anyone else noticed this? I know they say limited availability but it seems odd both my sailings were gone on the same day.

I just checked our booking for 2 weeks from now, and the Ultimate Dining Package is still there. It is also there for our April and September cruises plus the two we already have booked for next year.

Why not try to log out and then log in again a few minutes later, or close down your browser and then reopen it and try again.

:confused: :)

We booked as one 14 day cruise because at the time we got a good price, but not so great balcony cabin.

Several months later a friend of ours called to ask if we had any cruises booked because they wanted to join us. When they booked it was less money for them to book as 2 separate cruises, they got a better cabin than we did, but paid more even though our cabin is supposed to be a higher category.

Right now, the prices seem to be going down on their individual cruises but not on our 14 day cruise.

If it were me, I would price both ways and keep watching all 3 bookings (14 day and both 7 day sailings) prior to final payment.

Hope this helps.

:) :)

Our mini suite was on deck 11 above "Fat Cats" I would not book another cabin over any of the bars on deck 8 because of the noise from the music and the passengers at the bars late at night. We looked down at the white covering over the bars on 8 and the lifeboats. I'll avoid anything about "fat Cats" for sure. We sailed on Oct 27th and will again on Feb 2, loved the ship..

We also just booked a cruise for Feb. 2nd :D . We picked a side balcony cabin kind of aft on deck 13 port side.

I haven't joined the roll call yet. Still on my never ending to do list :rolleyes:

Look forward to meeting you.

T.

:)

Thank you again.

Hope we will like the bed by the balcony. I am sure we will. We are easy going, we enjoy everything.

:D

As you have guessed, all inside cabins on Breakaway open to the interior corridor, their doors are NOT across the hall from the Balcony rooms.

 

Cabin 13631 is going to be a long walk around...I would recommend changing to one of the insides near the elevators...it isn't that much of a walk.

 

 

PS....you will also have great seats on your balcony to catch the fireworks!

Thank you so much for your quick and informative reply. Sorry to bother you again, but can you please tell me if the bed is located near the balcony?

We did switch our inside cabin to one down by the elevators.

Also, would you happen to know if we can access the splash academy from deck 13?

Again, thank you so much.

:) :) :)

Tina

I was in 13236 on Breakaway, which is the same cabin but on the Port side. The balcony was great...appreciated the extra size and the wind block. Had a great view the entire cruise.

Sorry, do not mean to hijack post, but we booked cabin 13236 on the Breakaway the other day. Would you know if the inside cabins across the hall can come directly to this cabin or do they have to walk all the way around (cabin 13631)? Would it be better if we book our inside cabin down by the elevators (like cabin 13641) for closer access to us?

We are looking at the deck plan and it appears as if the hall is blocked. Didn't notice this until after we picked those cabins. Need your help, please :)

Any information you can share with us would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much,

Tina

:):confused:

We were on the Breakaway sailing July 7 in cabin 10264 which was a midship balcony aft port side. We liked this cabin, and spent a lot of time on the balcony. We could see the water near the ship well - the enclosed photo illustrates it. We tended to leave our curtains partly open at night while at sea, and the flood lights below about deck 6 light up the sea near the ship, so any time we woke up we would see the water going by as well. This was one of the recessed balconies. Other things we liked about this cabin: it was near the aft elevator lobby which turned out to be nice because since the ship is so big, it does take a while to get to places. Being close to the elevator shortens trips. It was also very quiet - two decks up from all the activity on deck 8 - the Boardwalk, and 5 decks below the big night party venues on the top deck. So we ended up thinking of this cabin as a nice oasis where we would take a break from all the stuff to do on the ship. As it happened the ship docked in Bermuda port side, so we were overlooking the dockyard which was interesting (I'm not sure how they decide which way they are going to dock the ship, it varies from side to side) and they shoot the fireworks off port side, so we watched them from the balcony. Another cool thing was the Wednesday coming into Bermuda - we ordered room service breakfast for 6:30am that day and it was fun having breakfast on the balcony as we did the ship channel slalom through the reefs and docked. Hope this is useful and that you enjoy your trip as much as we did.

Thank you so much for your reply. We were actually thinking of booking a cabin almost opposite one of the elevator bays :eek:, it looks like your cabin was a few cabins down.

Did you think that being in the recessed part of the ship that the wind was a little less windy while at sea? We thought about booking a cabin on one of the "stick" out portions, for a better side to side view, but was a little worried about the wind.

Also, do they always display the fireworks from the port side, regardless of which side faces the pier? Or do they only shoot off the fireworks while at sea?

I'm getting excited :D. We do spend a decent amount of time in our cabin and on our balcony, so I was very disappointed to hear that they are extra small, but we also spend a lot of time walking all over the ship, so we will have to make do with the small balcony.

Is there anything else you can think of that you would like to share with us?

Your info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,

T.

:) :)

Call NCL and talk to a representative. They are really good about knowing the plans, the bed locations, etc...have always given me good advice once I say what is important to me...

All our PCC could tell us is that every B3 cabin adjoins with another cabin and all she could do was look at pictures of the ship to determine what we would be looking down to see. Where we were originally thinking of booking we would be looking down onto the large balcony and large mini suite cabins. We would prefer to look down at the water, but it does not appear that is possible on the Breakaway.

Was trying to see if previous cruisers knew of any "secret" area that one could sneak a peak at the water straight down from their balcony.

Since she hasn't been on the ship either, she is speculating as best she could.

As far as staying in the area that bumps out or is recessed for wind or view purposes, I will have to ask her opinion, but she wouldn't know first hand like those here that have spent 7 days on the ship.

Our PCC also cannot comment on staying near an elevator because of the halls being so narrow since she hasn't been on the ship either.

That's why I was looking for some first hand knowledge.

I will use your advise and call her first thing Monday to get her input.

Thanks for your reply.

T.

:)

What date are you looking at?

Looking to book the end of April to early May or end of September to early October of 2014.

Why? Does that make a difference in location due to the wind and/or weather conditions?

Thanks for your reply.

T.

:)

Aft balconies on deck 12 are huge. Grab one if you can.

 

We would LOVE an aft balcony, especially on deck 12, but that is NOT an option at this point.

We need to decide on a location on deck 12 for a family balcony (however small they may be :().

Should we pick a cabin near an elevator?

Should we pick a cabin located in one of the areas that "stick" out on the side of the ship?

Should we pick a cabin that is recessed on the side of the ship to avoid some wind, if possible.

Are the Aft balcony cabins the only ones that look down onto water instead of life boats, other cabins, roof top, etc.?

Was hoping to hear from those that stayed in one of these side cabins to help us make our decision.

Thanks for your reply.

T.

:)